Wakefield pensioner jailed for rape and sex offences against schoolgirl

Picture of Edwards Adams, a 76-year-old man from Wakefield who has been jailed for 11 years for rape and sex offences against a girl under the age of 13.

Published:09:19Wednesday 20 August 2014

A pensioner from Wakefield who raped and carried out a series of sex offences against a schoolgirl has been jailed for 11 years.

A court heard Edward Adams’s 12-year-old victim was unlikely to ever get over the “profound psychological effect” of the campaign of abuse he subjected her to.

Adams, 76, of John Carr Avenue, Horbury, was given the lengthy sentence after a jury found him guilty of two offences of rape on child under 13, four further sexual assaults and two of inciting a child under 13 to commit a sexual offence.

Leeds Crown Court heard the offences took place in the Wakefield area in 2012.

Adams was arrested when the victim told her mother about the abuse.

He continued to deny the offences throughout his trial during which the victim had to give evidence. Judge Geoffrey Marson QC, passing sentence, said: “The assaults began in a secluded area, in a wood, where for perfectly understandable reasons she felt trapped because she had no sensible means of escape and getting back home.”

The judge added: “These offences will have had a profound psychological effect on her and I doubt she will ever be able to put these matters behind her.”

The court heard the girl now suffers flashbacks and still gets distressed over the offences Adams committed upon her.

The court heard Adams had now made some “limited admissions” of sexual offences against the girl.

Judge Marson added: “It’s a great pity you didn’t make these admissions before the trial began.”

Matthew Harding, mitigating, said: “He is 76-years of age, while he doesn’t have any serious health problems, clearly custody will not be easy for a man of his age, of hitherto good character.”